The month of May, in mainland Portugal, was "extremely hot" in relation to air temperature and "normal" in relation to precipitation, announced today by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
This was even the 3rd hottest month of May since 1931, after 2011 and 2015.
According to the IPMA, the mean value of the average air temperature was 18.47 °C, that is, 2.74 °C above the normal value.
The average maximum air temperature value, 24.96 °C, was the 2nd highest since 1931, with an anomaly of +4.0 °C, and the average minimum temperature value of 11.99 °C was 1.49 °C above normal.
Over the course of the month, the temperature varied greatly, with very high values of the maximum air temperature being highlighted, much higher than the normal values, namely from the 20th onwards.
Days 23 to 25 were the hottest, with average temperature values above 23 °C and average maximum temperature values above 30 °C.
The highest values of maximum air temperature, ≥ 35 °C, were observed on days 24 and 25.
In the period from 20th to 27th of May, there was a heat wave in the regions of the interior North and Center and Alentejo.
However, in relation to rain, the month of May was classified as normal, with an average value of precipitation in mainland Portugal of 66.1 mm, which corresponds to 93% of the average value.
According to the meteorological drought index – PDSI, at the end of the month the meteorological drought situation continues in almost the entire territory of mainland Portugal, with an alleviation in the northwest region of the territory in relation to April 30 and a worsening in the southern region, with the increase of the area in moderate drought.
At the end of this month, about 70% of the territory was in the moderate drought class.
Interestingly, the Algarve is the region of the country least affected by drought, as a large part of its territory is in a situation of “weak drought”, the area of Lagos/Aljezur is in a normal situation and in Sagres the situation was even of “rain weak".
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